Adult care provision

This chapter covers the provision of primary care to adults. This includes urinary incontinence, catheter care, constipation and incontinence, stoma care, spinal cord injury, the prevention of pressure ulcers, wound infection and debridement, malignant fungating wounds, wound dressings, leg ulcers and their dressing, compression therapy for venous ulcers, and lymphoedema. It also covers palliative care, including services for the dying patient, pain assessment and management, nausea, breathlessness, fatigue, depression, and spiritual care, and caring for patients in the dying phase. Emergencies, assisted dying, legal issues around the end of life, and bereavement are all covered. Common technical procedures including the care of central venous catheters, injections, venepuncture, recording a 12 lead electrocardiogram, tracheostomy care, and ear irrigation are also described.